Hold hands for a cause on Tybee

Holding hands on the beach is nothing new. Doing it with a hundred or more strangers makes it an event, however.

And that's the point of Hands Across the Sand, coming noon Saturday to Tybee's south beach. The Tybee effort is one of hundreds of synchronized events globally, aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of dirty fuels and the need to speed the transition to clean energy.

Locally, citizens from Tybee Island, Savannah, and nearby coastal communities will be joined by the Center for a Sustainable Coast, Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation – Georgia Chapter. Tybee Councilman Paul Wolff will be among the speakers who will address the crowd.

Local organizers point out that of particular concern in Georgia are plans by the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to allow the use of seismic air guns, 100,000 times more intense than a jet engine, to find oil and gas deposits off the East Coast. By the bureau's own estimates the use of these air guns will disturb, injure or kill 138,500 whales and dolphins and disturb millions more marine life, as well as harm commercial fisheries and disrupt coastal economies.

The movement was begun by Dave Rauschkolb, a Seaside, Fla., restaurant owner and surfer who organized similar demonstrations against near-shore and offshore drilling in that state in early 2010. His efforts spread nationally and internationally with the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf. The first Hands Across the Sand event on Tybee was held that year.

Now it's Hands Across The Sand/Land and is endorsed by national and regional environmental organizations including Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Gulf Restoration Network, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Florida Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, Urban Paradise Guild and All things Healing.

If you go

Hands Across the Sand will take place at noon Saturday on the beach to the north of the Tybee Pier and Pavilion, Strand Ave.